Dem
47
GOP
53
Forgive us for generalizing, but there is much in Australian culture that mirrors what you would find in Texas. A lot of Aussies love their beef and their cowboy hats and their pickup trucks (which they call "utes"). These similarities are probably explained by similarities in landscape, and similarities in historical circumstances (i.e., far-flung settlement, largely left to its own devices).
That said, utes use a lot of gas, particularly when we are talking the kinds of distances you sometimes have to cover in Australia. And because the Aussies have to import most of their petrol, it's quite expensive, and is very much subject to the vagaries of the market—say, if the Strait of Hormuz gets shut down. At the moment, the average price of a liter of gas down under is AUD 1.84, which works out to about $5/gallon in U.S. terms. That's a shade higher than the current U.S. average, which is $4.39/gallon. And the current price in Australia is actually a bit misleading, because the government has halved the usual tax through June 30.
For these reasons, Australia is one of the nations where enthusiasm for electric vehicles is highest. According to Nielsen Research, 51% of Aussies want a hybrid car and another 36% want a fully electric vehicle. If the U.S. could get to numbers even half of those, Ralph Nader could die happy.
We note all of this as prelude to the news that the Aussies have just achieved something notable on the EV front, albeit more a commercial and industrial achievement, rather than one involving private citizens. New Energy Transport is a company that is working to make viable electric semi trucks. For them to be viable, they have to be able to charge fairly quickly, and to travel a fairly long distance on that charge. Last month, the company revealed that it had executed a very successful test. An electric semi, carrying 20 tons of freight, made the trip from Sydney to Canberra (a little less than 200 miles) on a single charge.
That charge, which took just one hour to execute, left the semi with enough electricity to make the return trip, plus a bit more (a full charge gives a range of about 415 miles with a load of 40 tons). Because an electric motor is able to deliver more consistent power on hills and other challenging terrain, the trip was 25 minutes faster than it would have been with a gas-powered semi. And the fuel costs were 84% lower than they would have been with gas.
These are deal-breaker numbers. Politics aside, if EV makers can deliver more efficient performance at a lower cost, and without any serious downsides (it's easy enough to recharge the trucks while they are parked overnight, or while the driver is having a bit of lunch), that is something that companies that rely on long-haul trucking have to take notice of. And, for what it's worth, 415 miles of range is enough to cover the distance from Los Angeles to San Francisco, from Houston to Dallas, from Boston to New York City or from Chicago to St. Louis.
In short, a tip of the (outback) hat to the Aussies. And have a good weekend, all! (Z)